When small parts are produced by high speed automatic machines such, for example, as injection molding machines and screw machines, the freshly made parts are ejected from the machines either singly or in groups. In some cases receptacles such as open top containers are placed below the ejection point of the machine while in other cases conveyors extend below the ejection point to catch the ejected parts and carry them to another location. Inasmuch as the parts are oftentimes light in weight and irregular in shape, they tend to bounce away from the receptacle or conveyor and become damaged or lost. In the case of plastic molding machines the problem is accentuated by the fact that the desired parts and the sprue pieces drop simultaneously from the molds and become intermingled. Moreover, in some cases a single pair of mold members produce different parts which are ejected and drop from the mold cavity as the mold opens.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,811 there is described a foldable, open top chute which is attached to mold platens to carry molded plastic parts from beneath the molds to a conveyor. Other types of guide chutes formed of sheet metal or the like have been custom built for use with molding and other types of part producing machines but they have not been widely used because of the relatively small space available for them beneath the molds. Moreover, since there are many different molding machine designs the guide chutes of the prior art were usually custom made.